Improvement in street-railway track-cleaners



P. maman.

Street Railway Track-Cleaners.

-No.15l,963. Patentredlunmmam.

VE .A I o Il 5 5 l? l I' C C 11e 170.52' c 4 d E' I1-1L L '1E Witnesses. Invenor'.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

PETER DIEMER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT lN STREET-RAILWAY TRACK-CLEANERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 151,963, dated June 16, 1874; application filed January 26, 1874.

To all whom. it may concern Be it known that I, PETER DIEMER, of Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented an Improved Track-Cleaner for Street-Railways, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to a device suspended under theplatform of street-cars, so constructed and arranged that it can be easily and readily applied and adjusted by the driver for cleaning and scraping snow, ice, or dirt from the face ofthe rails; and consists of a mold-board having a hardened point, which fits to and rides on the face of the rail. Said mold-board is attached to a lever directly in front of the tread of the car-wheel, the lever being suspended about midway of its length to a bracket attached-to the under side of the platform, and extending forward in front of the dash-board, Where a handle is attached for the driver to operate it.

To fully understand the invention I will proceed to describe the same in detail by the aid of the accompanying drawing.

Figure l is a front or end elevation of a carplatform having my improvement attached. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same.

A, Figs. 1 and 2, is a platform of a car, supported on a truck in the usual manner. Suspended to brackets b b are levers B B reaching` from the wheels to the front side of the dash-board O, and are bent at the forward ends so as to come together, where they are jointed to an upright arm, D, which plays in a guide, E, fastened to the cross-head of the platform. The arm D has a shoulder, d, on

its front side, at a proper point, and is provided with a spring, c, on its rear side, bearing against the cross-head. The object of this shoulder and spring is to hold the front end of the levers B B down, when. depressed by the operator, for elevating the scraper at the other end of the said levers. F F are moldboards, having their upper rear corners bent outward. The front end of the mold-board is bent inward, forming a flange, and the front part ofthe bottoni edge is cut so as to flt and lie close down onto the face of the rail. A small three-cornered point, f, is made on the side of the moldboard, giving a greater strength. to the scraping-edge, at the same time throwing' outward the ice and snow. These mold-boards are bolted to the levers, which enables them to be adjusted and replaced by new ones when worn or broken.

By the use of this arrangement for scraping, the track may be kept entirely free from obstructions. lf there be a hard frozen place, too hard for the scraper, it can readily spring up and jump over; or the driver may draw on the handle, and make the scraper bear hard enough to remove the ice.

This invention also obviates the necessity of the use of salt for clearing the track.

Having described my invention, I claim- The combination with the arm D, having the shoulder d and spring c, of the levers B B, having mold-board F F, with points f, constructed to operate as shown and described.

P. DIEMER.

Vitnesscs: y

GEo. W. TIBBITTS, GEO. A. KoLBE. 

